Sold for: $25,000

PROVENANCE
The Collection of Torben V. Kristiansen, Vancouver

LITERATURE
Paul Duval, The Tangled Garden: The Art of J.E.H. MacDonald, 1978, pages 5 and 13

To Paul Duval, author of a major study dedicated to his art, J.E.H. MacDonald was “an authentic hero of Canadian art”—a renowned commercial and fine artist as well as administrator of the Ontario College of Art. As his younger Group of Seven colleague A..J. Casson wrote in the foreword to the same volume: “[MacDonald] had no formula either in designing or painting. Each piece of work was approached in a manner appropriate to the subject. This attitude and his marvellous sense of design kept him from ever repeating a composition.”

Besides Algoma and Lake O’Hara, a place name frequently associated with MacDonald is Thornhill, just north of Toronto, Ontario, where he purchased a property in 1912. He called his home there Four Elms, in honour of the large trees that grew there. Field Elm, Thornhill depicts one such natural giant in all its summer greenery, set against a clear blue sky. Demonstrating a sure approach to his subject, MacDonald highlights with fluid brush-strokes the majestic elm mid-ground against a bright hayfield in this fine Group period sketch.

For the biography on Torben V. Kristiansen in PDF format, please click here.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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